The Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Science (RBCS) Research Line is opening a 12-months postdoctoral position starting from January 2018.

The sense of touch can carry a lot of information, especially when other senses are not available. Sensory substitution is a phenomenon allowing to code, for example, visual concepts into tactile percepts. The extent to which specific visuo-spatial content can be perceived and understood through touch is still receiving attention and deserves investigations that go beyond a direct visuo-tactile translation. As well, neurophysiological underpinnings of visuo-tactile sensory substitution can confirm whether or not touch is carrying a desired content. This is important in situations where it is not obvious to verify if and how people are correctly exploring/memorizing spatial concepts, such as visually impaired persons.

The goal of the project is to investigate unconventional means of transmitting spatial contents, which are not necessarily related to real percepts, through touch and to construct a validation setup that makes joint use of behavioural and neurophysiological variables.

The research will be carried out in collaboration with a team of engineers, psychologists and experts in the field of sensory disabilities.

The ideal candidate must have a Ph.D. Degree in Psychology, Cognitive Science or Neuroscience.

He/she should have experience in at least one of the following fields: Psychophysics, Neurophysiology, Cognitive Neuroscience.

He/she should also have published in the related field. Experience with software suites manipulating statistical data (R, SPSS, Matlab, Python) are a plus. Previous experience with EEG/fMRI is highly appreciated.

He/she will be working in a fully equipped laboratory of the “Spatial Awareness and Multisensory Perception” lab of the Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Science Research Line.

Interested applicants should submit CV, list of publications, names of 2 referees and a statement of research interest to